Cloudy Weather

I'm not a happy camper today. Saturday night when I got home from work my cat, Entrée, came out of the back of the house almost dragging his hind end. He didn't seem to be in any pain, but it was as if his back legs had been to a wild party that the front end of the cat missed out on! I couldn't find any swelling, injuries, bites or anything else to account for his plight, but I did notice his hind feet were icy cold while his front feet were toasty. Not good. Still, his pads were rosy pink and the cat as a whole seemed fine, just wonko legs. After about an hour he was up walking again; not normally, but much better. He was eating, drinking and eliminating ok, so I opted to wait for morning.

In the morning (sunday) he had another bout of rubber legs, so I took him to the pet ER (no small thing since it costs both arms and both legs just to walk in the door there). He was walking better by the time we arrived, rather like a German Shepherd with hip displasia, but the vet could find nothing obvious wrong. She thought that a pinched nerve would be very painful and unlikely to clear up so fast, and it wouldn't cause circulation problems. Wrong symptom presentation for botulism or a toxin from a bite. She also thought that blood clots would be very painful. We opted to do nothing, since he was in no pain and it didn't seem life threatening. I didn't want to pay the ER cost for diagnostics if they weren't emergency measures.

So this morning we went to our regular vet. Entree is fine, as far as he knows, but we go in for an echo cardiogram (sonogram) next Thursday. The Dr. says the only thing that really fits is that he threw a clot. Arterial Thromboembolism. The cold feet are pretty much diagnostic of that. It's quite common, even in young cats. Usually painful though, so that part is odd. But a pinched nerve or any other spinal problem wouldn't clear up so fast, and none of the other things we talked about will cause the circulation problem he had. His heart rate was 180 beats/min, which is quite fast, but then he was at the vet... could be nervousness. The Doc, whom I have known for 12 years now, wouldn't meet my eyes and sat looking down at the floor in silence for quite awhile afterward. We chatted some about our families, but the mood was very somber. That in itself is the most frightening thing. Entree is quite the celebrity at the vet and very well loved there.

So for now he's on 80mg or aspirin every 72 hours and if he does have a heart problem he'll be on some sort of medication, Probably beta blockers. Which type of myocardial disease this turns out to be, if any (still holding out hope) will tell us more about his prognosis. They're all progressive though and, outside of a heart transplant, which they don't do for cats, not very treatable. He says many cats do well in the early stages. No idea how long that means... the website I linked to above doesn't give more than a year for any of the possibilities.

Entrée has a history of mystery illnesses. He's had multiple bouts with interstitial cystitis (irritable bladder syndrome) and survived them all, even when he became completely blocked for so long he lost all bladder control. Then last September his whole hind end swelled up and the vet couldn't find anything wrong. Once the swelling went down (heavy antibiotics and an anti inflammatory) we discovered a cat bite and abscess. He's been a "free range" cat for almost 8 years here in our wild canyon, and that in itself is nearly miraculous. The pragmatic names AR gave our two cats (Entrée and Aperitif) seem to have given a protective status. Perhaps he'll pull his usual stuff and everything will be clear with his heart next week, marking another life down. I've lost count how many he's gone through now...

Keep all your stuff crossed for him please.